Russell Brand: 'David Cameron must make rioters feel included'

Russell Brand has criticized David Cameron and the government for engendering the "state of deprivation" experienced by many of those who carried out the recent UK riots.

The Arthur actor recalled taking part in a number of protests in his early 20s that sometimes became "chaotic" and "hostile".

"I found those protests exciting, yes, because I was young and a bit of a twerp but also, I suppose, because there was a void in me. A lack of direction, a sense that I was not invested in the dominant culture, that government existed not to look after the interests of the people it was elected to represent but the big businesses that they were in bed with," he wrote in The Guardian.

Brand, who noted that he used to live in a number of the areas in London that were hit by the riots, took issue with "the understandable yet futile rhetoric describing the rioters as mindless".

"However 'unacceptable' and 'unjustifiable' it might be, it has happened, so we better accept it and, whilst we can't justify it, we should kick around a few neurons and work out why so many people feel utterly disconnected from the cities they live in," he suggested.

Brand went on to argue that politicians have created a "disenfranchised" youth by serving their own career interests, rather than the needs of the general populace.

"I remember Cameron saying 'hug a hoodie' but I haven't seen him doing it. Why would he? Hoodies don't vote, they've realized it's pointless, that whoever gets elected will just be a different shade of the 'we don't give a toss about you' party," he added.

"Politicians don't represent the interests of people who don't vote. They barely care about the people who do vote. They look after the corporations who get them elected.

"These young people have no sense of community because they haven't been given one. If we don't want our young people to tear apart our communities then don't let people in power tear apart the values that hold our communities together."

Brand concluded by suggesting that the solution to the problem is "spiritual" rather than political, quoting Gandhi's mantra: "Be the change you want to see in the world."

He concluded: "If we want to live in a society where people feel included, we must include them, where they feel represented, we must represent them, and where they feel love and compassion for their communities then we, the members of that community, must find love and compassion for them."